Dino-Rhinos reside in Chocolate Island, located in Super Mario World. They will follow Mario and jump over short obstacles to get him. When Mario jumps on one, it turns into a Dino-Torch. Dino-Torches are capable of breathing fire, unlike their bigger form, although there are unused sprites of Dino-Rhinos breathing fire. Mario can also defeat the enemy in one go by Spin Jumping on one or jumping on it with Yoshi. Yoshi can eat Dino-Torches but not the large Dino-Rhinos. Also, Dino-Rhinos are immune to fireballs.

Dino-Rhinos, though never named as such, appeared only once in the Super Mario World television series. In the episode "Send in the Clown", a Dino-Rhino, along with two Dino-Torches, was shown to be held in a cage in King Koopa's "Koopaling Bros. Circus". After being shoved into this cage by Koopa, Mario narrowly avoids being eaten by the Dino-Rhino, which he defeats by shooting fireballs into the creatures mouth after transforming into Fire Mario by using a Fire Flower.

While traveling through a forest in the Nintendo Adventure BookFlown the Koopa, Mario, Luigi, Toad and the Mushroom King encounter a herd of Dino Rhinos that, depending on how the reader solves the accompanying puzzle, will either narrowly miss the quartet or run them down, causing them to lose their International Dino-Flying Derby tickets and some Coins. In Unjust Desserts, after shedding his Toad disguise around the beginning of the story, Bowser escapes Mushroom Palace by jumping out a window and onto the back of a waiting Dino Rhino. Other Dino Rhinos are shrunk by Magikoopa, and some of them are eaten by Yoshi and can be encountered by Mario, both inside and outside the dinosaur's body.

In the final book, Brain Drain, Mario and Luigi (who is in the body of a Koopa Troopa due to Iggy Koopa's Synapse Switcher) can encounter a group of Dino Rhinos and Sumo Bros. Luigi can gain the trust of these enemies if he "scares" Mario away but will wind up switching bodies again (if he does not have pizza to plug his ears with) when the group decide to celebrate by listening to a radio that Iggy is using to broadcast the Synapse Switcher's signal.

In Paper Mario, a pure white version of Dino Rhinos, called Albino Dinos, appear as guards in the Crystal Palace. They were initially going to be enemies Mario could fight, but they were removed. However, their battle data remains complete within the games files.